Fill Your Horn with Oil: The Courage to Begin Again - Kol Nidrei

A Yom Kippur sermon that speaks to the broken dreamer in all of us

This isn’t a sermon for the perfect.
It’s for the ones who gave everything… and still watched it fall apart.

It begins with the prophet Shmuel—flat on the ground, weeping over a future that didn’t come true. He believed in Shaul. He gave him his blessing, his mentorship, his hope. And it didn’t work. Shaul failed.

And then God speaks:

“How long will you mourn?
מַלֵּא קַרְנְךָ שֶׁמֶן וְלֵךְ
Fill your horn with oil—and go.”

That’s the heartbeat of this sermon.
A call from Heaven for anyone who has ever looked at their marriage… their child… their career… their life… and said: “This is not how it was supposed to be.”

It’s not just about getting up.
It’s about discovering:
There’s still oil in your horn.
There’s still a David waiting to be anointed.
There’s still music to be written and a future to be lived.

This sermon walks with your community through the real stories:

• A marriage that starts with fantasy—but becomes holy the moment you choose love over illusion
  • A child who may not walk the path you dreamed—but is begging to be seen for who they are
  • A broken circle that rolls imperfectly—and wakes up to the beauty most of us miss
  • A heart that cracks—and lets the light of God come pouring through

This is not a sermon of guilt.
It’s a sermon of grace.
Of falling and rising. Of crying and continuing.
Of remembering that Yom Kippur was never for the flawless.

It was made for the people still trying.

And when your community hears it, they’ll remember:
Even in the ashes of what was…

God is still whispering:
מַלֵּא קַרְנְךָ שֶׁמֶן וְלֵךְ
Fill your horn with oil—and go.